Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness in the United States. Unfortunately, despite access to medical care, many patients are going undiagnosed in terms of their diabetic eye disease. Many efforts have been directed to screening; however, such efforts are still ineffective. An HMO states that only 33% of its diabetic patients are actually obtaining yearly eye exams, despite widespread educational efforts. Glaucoma is another serious cause of blindness in the United States that is under detected.
In an effort to increase the percentage of patients who are obtaining yearly eye exams to detect diabetes effects, glaucoma and other eye problems in an earliest possible stage, a new approach is warranted.
The present invention is an apparatus and method for conducting a medical screening test on a user patient.
In one aspect of the invention, the medical screening apparatus includes a housing, a user interface mounted in the housing for inputting patient-related data, medical test apparatus mounted in the housing for conducting a medical test on a user and generating a test output, and means for communicating with the medical test apparatus for transmitting the test output and patient data to a remote site for analysis.
In one aspect, the apparatus further includes a control means in the housing for controlling the user interface, activation of the medical test apparatus and operation of the transmitting means. Preferably the control means includes a central processing unit executing a control program stored in a memory coupled to the central processing unit.
The transmitting means preferably comprises means for communicating the test output to the remote site via a global telecommunication network, such as the Internet.
In another aspect, the user interface preferably comprises a video display terminal. The display terminal can be capable of receiving only user input data in response to visual prompts generated by the control means. Alternately, the video display terminal is also capable of displaying the test output.
In one specific aspect, the medical test apparatus is a retinal screening apparatus. The retinal screening apparatus preferably includes a digital retinal camera. Means are provided for establishing a predetermined position of the user""s or patient""s eye with respect to the camera. This position may be provided by a chin support mounted at a fixed distance from the camera in the housing or a seat mounted on the housing at a fixed distance from the camera.
In another aspect, the invention is a method of automatically conducting a medical screening test on a user or patient. The method includes steps of providing a housing, providing a user interface in the housing for receiving user-related data, providing a medical test apparatus in the housing for automatically executing a medical test on a user and generating a test output, and transmitting the test output to a remote site for analysis.
Preferably, the user interface is implemented by providing a video display terminal in the housing which is capable of receiving user data in response to visual prompts generated by a control means on the video display terminal and/or displaying the medical test output on the display terminal.
The method further includes the step of providing the test apparatus as a retinal screening apparatus which includes a digital retinal camera. The method includes the steps of establishing a predetermined position of the patient""s eye from the digital camera for implementing the retinal screening test.
The medical screening apparatus and method of the present invention affords numerous advantages. The primary advantage is the easy and quick taking of a medical screening test on a user or patient. This simple procedure causes users to more readily have the medical screening test performed so as to detect any diseases at an earlier stage. The entire operation of the apparatus is automated so as to simplify its use by numerous users when the apparatus is placed in a public location, such as a shopping mall, etc.
The apparatus is also capable of taking one or more tests. The use of the global telecommunication network for transmitting the test results enables each test to be analyized by a central test organization for test result consistency.